GILL WOODHEAD, in her letter of April 2, claims that there is need for a high-end foodstore as well as a big mid-range store, in addition to the four mid/low range supermarkets already in town (shortly to be five with the expansion of Heron Foodstore).

Last autumn, the long-awaited local plan for Ryedale was completed and adopted by Ryedale District Council. In the plan, paragraph 5.17 states that: “The town has a predominance of discount-type food stores” and “the long-term success of the town includes a requirement for improving the supermarket offer to include provision for a higher order food store”.

Ryedale District Council’s retail capacity predictions for the next 15 years in the local plan take into account all the extra housing that is planned, including all the plans cited by Ms Woodhead. Indeed, if that planned housing was not built then there would be excess retail capacity in the town.

In the local plan, paragraphs 5.22 and 5.23 state that “current commitments account for the quantitative food convenience retail”, and the plan also specifies a total net area of convenience space required for the town. But the numbers do not add up in the case of people like Ms Woodhead, who say we should have both.

What these people are saying is needed is almost twice the limit of retail space outlined in the local plan. If councillors really thought that, why didn’t they make that case to the local plan inspector last May? Because he would have considered this reckless about the future of the town. No one made that case then and it is not credible to make it now. This is why the Holbeck amended application for the big store development on the car park is reliant on the statements in the reports commissioned by Ryedale District Council (vendors of the site) that a small foodstore on the livestock market would not be viable – and all despite the fact that the adopted local plan advocates a higher-order foodstore.

Ms Woodhead also needs to consider what supermarkets currently see as feasible. Small convenience stores from the “big six” are going ahead because they offer the best return on the limited capital available. Larger store plans are on hold, a situation driven in part by the increase in online household shopping. So, it is quite possible that if the plan for a large store were to be approved, there may be no end user for it, rather its buyer would keep out the competition by allowing it to lie in a land bank, blocking other interested parties, and leaving uncertainty hanging over the towns’ future.

Fiona Croft, Old Malton